The Auditor General's Office has called for an investigation into the installation of parking systems in Male' and Hulhumale', after nearly MVR 60 million was spent on a project that failed to deliver the intended public benefits and was eventually scrapped.

Audit office has also recommended action against those found responsible for negligence in the project.

According to the Ministry of Housing's 2018–2023 audit report, the ministry awarded a MVR 59.9 million contract on June 26, 2016, to install parking systems at 20 locations in Male' and Hulhumale'.

However, the contract was cancelled on June 26, 2018, due to inadequate progress. In 2018, another contract worth MVR 14.4 million was awarded to a foreign company to install the remaining 14 parking systems, the report said.

The audit noted that major projects should be preceded by proper planning and feasibility studies. However, there was no documentation to show that a feasibility study had been conducted before the parking systems were installed.

A total of MVR 59.35 million was spent on the project, the report found.

Following the change of government in 2018, the decision was made not to proceed with installing additional parking systems. In 2022, the government also decided to remove the systems already installed after determining that operating them was not feasible.

The ministry informed the Auditor General's Office on October 5 that it could not account for the materials supplied by the State Trading Organization (STO) for the installation works after the project was halted, despite STO having handed them over to the ministry.

The audit concluded that the project had failed to deliver its intended benefits to the public, resulting in a loss to the state.

The audit also found that payments had been made without adequately verifying the progress of the work.

Under the Public Finance Regulation, payments for projects valued above MVR 2.5 million must be made after considering reports prepared by the project consultant.

However, the audit found that MVR 9.8 million had been paid against four bills submitted by STO for work carried out in Male' and Hulhumale' , in accordance with the agreed payment schedule.

When the contract was cancelled on June 26, 2018, only two parking systems had been completed.

Under the agreement with the foreign company, the contractor submitted two invoices totaling more than MVR 4 million. However, the audit found that the ministry could not establish which locations the invoices related to or how much work had actually been completed.

The report noted that the company had not completed any parking systems before the decision was made to abandon the project.

A total of MVR 13.86 million was paid without ensuring that the corresponding work had been completed, the audit found.

The audit also found that the ministry had made an advance payment of MVR 2.17 million when the project was halted in 2018. Of this amount, MVR 1.45 million remains unrecovered.

The ministry had not taken adequate steps to recover the outstanding advance payment, according to the report.

The Auditor General's Office has called for an investigation into the project's failures and recommended action against those found responsible for negligence.